Telling Times

Would this venture ever have seen the light of day had it not been for Coronavirus and the whole notion of lockdown?

Because the fact is – and it is an irony – even horologists never have enough time. The world races on, things need doing. There are restaurants to visit, friends to meet, holidays to take, families to entertain and be entertained by.

shiny bathrooms…

Impose lockdown, and the world slows down. And suddenly there is the time to do those things you enthusiastically put off. Gardens have never been tidier. DIY jobs have never been so warmly embraced. Bathrooms have never looked shinier.

Don’t get me wrong. I am recognising the huge privilege I enjoy here – comfortable home, no pressing financial issues, a garden to relax in, no young children to keep amused. Don’t believe the politicians who say we are all in this together. The pandemic has thrown a searing spotlight on the inequalities in society.

…and broken promises

But in between all the other stuff that has needed doing, a decade of failing to fulfil my retirement promise has finally come to an end.

On quitting work full-time I pledged to create a self-financing hobby and indulge my lifelong passion for clocks. I would buy clocks, I would refresh them, then I would sell them in order to buy some more.

I managed the first two bits of that easily. But parting with clocks is a tougher call altogether. And that reluctance has prevented me from creating the platform to do so. Time, or lack of it, has provided the perfect excuse. Until now.

The gift of time

Lockdown* has gifted the time to address part three of the promise I made to myself. It is one of several constructive ways I have used the enforced spell of seclusion and slow-down.

In these telling times, I hope you too have found, amidst the new pressures and stresses of a changed world, the time to be constructive and to fulfil a lifetime’s ambition, however modest.

If not, perhaps now’s the time.

*I should mention here that not just lockdown, but an IT literate friend called Graham (I think it is compulsory to be called Graham if you are in IT. A bit like it is obligatory to be called Gavin if you are a male graphic designer) played a major part in bringing this site to fruition – for which I am hugely grateful.

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